[i945gm] querying driver for supported resolutions makes screen flash

[Ryan T Mulligan]

Binary package hint: xrandr

When I type xrandr my secondary head monitor flashes black. Based on triage on Wine bugzilla it seems to have something to do with x11drv.

Here is the exchange on the Wine bugzilla:

Ryan Mulligan:

When I start wine and pass it some command line binary that doesn't even make
use of GUI components, my second head monitor flashes black. Since this is the
monitor I actually use primarily, I can't see what I'm doing for a brief
moment.

------- Comment #1 From Vitaliy Margolen 2008-09-09 19:53:32 [reply] -------

What video card and drivers is this? This is most likely defect in your drivers
that reset/re-initialize when asked for supported resolutions. Which Wine does
automatically when loading x11drv

This most likely won't fix as this is not Wine problem. Does it happen when you
run 'xrandr'?

------- Comment #2 From Ryan Mulligan 2008-09-09 19:58:19 [reply] -------

Yep, same problem with xrandr. Great job diagnosing. I will try to alert the
video card driver folks.

*****

here is the relevant portions of my sudo lspci -v :

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
 Subsystem: Lenovo ThinkPad T60/R60 series
 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 20
 Memory at ee100000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
 I/O ports at 1800 [size=8]
 Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
 Memory at ee200000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256K]
 Capabilities: [90] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit- Queue=0/0 Enable-
 Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 2

00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
 Subsystem: Lenovo ThinkPad T60/R60 series
 Flags: fast devsel
 Memory at ee180000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
 Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 2

[Loffe (erik-eloff)]

From my duplicated report:

I have an external monitor connected to my laptop and I use both screens as a big desktop. It works well, even with compiz :D

However, when I start Totem Media Player my external screen goes totally black for 1-2 seconds. After the blackout it comes on again and works normally. This happens at every startup of totem (but not when I close it)

I get the same issue when i run xrandr from terminal. I suppose this is how totem detects my monitors.

It doesn't matter if I have "Desktop Effects" enabled or disabled.

I have a HP Compaq 6510b with Intel 965 graphics.
xserver-xorg-video-intel version 2:2.2.1-1ubuntu13.7

"xrandr -v" says version is 1.2 after another short blackout

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

This is a driver bug rather than an issue with xrandr itself.

Does the issue still occur on Jaunty?

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

We're closing this bug since it is has been some time with no response from the original reporter. However, if the issue still exists please feel free to reopen with the requested information. Also, if you could, please test against the latest development version of Ubuntu, since this confirms the bug is one we may be able to pass upstream for help.

[Loffe (erik-eloff)]

Sorry I'm late to respond. Now I took some time testing this on the very latest jaunty alpha 6

The issue still exists!

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ apt-cache policy xserver-xorg-video-intel
xserver-xorg-video-intel:
  Installed: 2:2.6.1-1ubuntu4

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ xrandr -v
Server reports RandR version 1.3

The graphics card:
00:02.1 Display controller [0380]: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a03] (rev 0c)
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30c0]
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
        Memory at e4700000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1M]
        Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 3

Do you need any more info?

[Loffe (erik-eloff)]

Some interesting facts: I tried out the very latest Fedora 11 Live Beta yesterday, and it did NOT have this bug. No black screen flashes!
I'm not sure which driver version Fedora 11 uses, since this was the first time I tried a rpm-based distro

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi ryantmulligan,

Please attach the output of `lspci -vvnn`, and attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log (and maybe Xorg.0.log.old) file from after reproducing this issue. If you've made any customizations to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf please attach that as well.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Tim Allen (screwtape)]

As I understand it, the situation is this: the 945GM hardware has two 'output drivers' ("CRTCs") for driving displays. When xrandr runs, it asks the driver for information on all connected displays, so the driver has to disconnect one of its CRTCs from your external monitor, and temporarily hook it up to the other available outputs in turn to see if there's a display connected to any of them. Once it's done, it hooks the CRTC back up to your external monitor and your display returns.

I'm using a MacBook with a 945GM chip, and I have four available outputs - LVDS (the internal panel), TMDS-1 (external DVI), VGA (external VGA) and TV. Of those, I'm always using LVDS and TMDS-1, and the VGA connector can detect that it's disconnected without having to start up a CRTC, therefore when I run xrandr on a stock install, my screen flashes black while it probes the TV output.

I don't have a TV connected, and I never intend to, so what I did was modify my xorg.conf to tell it to pretend there's no TV output at all. First, I added a new top-level section:

    Section "Monitor"
     Identifier "DisabledMonitor"
     Option "Ignore" "true"
    EndSection

The "Ignore" option means that any output connected to this monitor will be ignored.

Then, I added an option to the "Device" section:

            Option "Monitor-TV" "DisabledMonitor"

This connects the TV output to the output-disabling monitor section above.

After making this change and logging out, running xrandr no longer causes black flashes (incidentally, black flashes caused by programs such as Totem that used XVideo are also gone).

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[This is an automatic notification.]

A new major version of the -intel driver is now available in Karmic.

This version includes a major reworking of the acceleration
architecture, which resolves a huge number of issues. We do not know
whether it resolves the issue you reported.

Would you mind testing Karmic Alpha-2 and seeing if it is still a
problem? CD ISO images are available here:

  http://cdimages.ubuntu.com/releases/karmic/

If the issue can still be reproduced on karmic, please report here with
your findings, and attach a fresh Xorg.0.log from your test, and we will
be able to forward the bug upstream.

Otherwise, if the bug no longer exists in Karmic, let us know that as
well.

In the off chance you encounter different bugs while attempting to test
Karmic, please report those as new bug reports.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

We're closing this bug since it is has been some time with no response from the original reporter. However, if the issue still exists please feel free to reopen with the requested information. Also, if you could, please test against the latest development version of Ubuntu, since this confirms the bug is one we may be able to pass upstream for help.

It seems likely to me this bug is gone; the -intel driver has improved immensely in Karmic and a lot of bugs are being reported as no longer present. So hopefully that's the case here too.